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brooksinburundi@googlemail.com
EAB Matana,
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DS 30, BUJUMBURA
Burundi Africa.
Subject: Pat and Pam or Anne
February 23, 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
Many thanks for your many emails.
This has been a busy week with journeys each day for Anne and for me.
On Monday afternoon we visited 2 families – the Gahengas and the Kabuyes – whom we knew in the 60s. We saw each other’s children growing up and it was so good to share news of them all. John was ordained in 1958 and Jeremy in 1955 and they have served faithfully all over Burundi in difficult circumstances. John still lectures in the Bible College, but Jeremy is sadly suffering from brain damage caused by falls from his motorbike when he was archdeacon in the capital and surrounding area. He is very peaceful, says virtually nothing but always prays with fervour.
Tuesday we went to Mutangaro on a tarmac road for an MU meeting. Archdeacon Benoit and all the ladies gave us a great welcome. The meeting was interrupted by a tremendous storm with hail – which we have met before. Everything had to stop. After the worship the MU leader gave her report of numbers of members and the work that they do in the community. Then we held the spectacle clinic for any older people – men and women. Eularie and Claudette helped with us and we gave away 60 pairs of specs. It’s concentrated work! Then it was time for lunch which is always laid on so lavishly with rice, potatoes, plantains, lumps of meat, kidney beans and sometimes an oily sauce.
On Wednesday we went back to Kwishwi to see the Literacy Class and to give out more specs. The class was very interesting. This particular group had been learning since April ’07 and were continuing to learn numbers and measurements. They decided that beans brought in more profit than wheat, potatoes, maize or peas – which would also grow in their region. The word for beans is i-bi-ha-ra-gi. Broken down into its syllables it formed the bases for more teaching on the vowels.
Then using the consonants they formed more words e.g. i-bi-go-re (Maize). Then they had the syllables laid out on a drum and they had to come and fit them together. Finally they were asked how much a kilo of beans cost. 800 fr. If they gave 1,000 fr. note, how much change would they get? They seemed a downtrodden group, but with this teaching they would surely feel more empowered. We then gave out 37 pairs of specs and were entertained to lunch with the same menu as the day before.
On Thursday we went to a new archdeaconry centre and had a service for the MU members. They seemed so poor. Many of them had their babies and toddlers with them and several were feeding at their mothers’ breasts. The MU had lost members through dividing the archdeaconry centres and the parishes, but they were working hard to help the widow of a pastor who was misdiagnosed with malaria when he had typhoid. Only 7 people had specs. Lunch followed at 1.00 p.m. – the same generosity. We then went onto another archdeaconry. Many of them had waited all day for us because they had thought that we were coming in the morning. We had a short service and then gave out 30 pairs of specs. Many people were disappointed not to be tested, but we ran out of time.
At 4.00 pm we thought that we were leaving, but no, it was lunchtime – again – and the same hospitality was shown to us. Here the food was on the plates, but Anne and I asked for empty plates and were able to take small portions of potatoes, rice, meat, beans and plantain from one plate!
Friday we were back at Mutumba with crowds of people wanting specs. We gave out 64 pairs and had to disappoint some. Then we had lunch – some menu – (so that my skirts are getting tighter!). We then went onto a ‘co-operative’ of those who had leaned to read and to write and were working together, rotating the crops – beans, potatoes, maize, sweet potatoes. They are about to harvest the potatoes. Each participant will be given some for cooking, the rest will be stored for planting. At the time of planting each participant will be given some seed potatoes, some will be sold but most will be planted for the group. They had built a church using only trees for vertical struts and then interwoven branches horizontally. They had their own church teacher and were meeting together on Sundays for services. Many of these people were pygmies and they all seemed very hard working people.
Steve and Anne Stordy, with whom we stayed in the north of the country, are with us this weekend. Pat has gone to a wedding at Gitega of 2 of his former students and the rest of us went to see ‘the source of the Nile’. Burundi is one of the claimants for this fame. A pyramid had been built of stone on the highest point and we could see a very long way in every direction. They will take this email to Bujumbura.
The glasses clinics are going well, but I’m afraid of running out of some strengths. We’ve been selling the cases – but often 25p. is too much for many people. Anne took pity on one lady who needed +3.50 and for the first time for many years she could see to read her Bible – but she had no money. She went off radiant clutching her two new possessions. William is in the next room to me here, and I can hear his sewing machine whirring as he makes more cases.
Thank you for your prayers and for your companionship,
With our love,
Pat and
Pam and Anne
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